Re: [tied] IE words for monkey,ape : Ke:pos, Kapi, Apan, Opica,

From: Petr Hrubis
Message: 33037
Date: 2004-06-02

If it helps, as for OR opica:
 
OR, Polish dial., Cz-Slk opica < OS *opica which is a deriv. of *opU (suff. -ica)
 
It is often thought to be either Germanic > Slavic  or Slavic > Germanic loan, or an independent loan from an unknow source. (Some scholars consider Sans. kapi-, some Pers. abuzine (> R. obez'jána), but that is quite unsure. Machek also talks about similarity to  Egyptian gephi.)
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: enlil@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004 4:27 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] IE words for monkey,ape : Ke:pos, Kapi, Apan, Opica, ABranas

Joao:
> Is there any explanation for the IE words for monkey?
> Germanic apan
> Old Russian opica
> Celtic (Hesychius) abranas
> Greek ke:pos, ke:bos
> Sanskrit ka:pi
>
> A loanword? *Ha:p-, *Xa:p

Gamrelidze and Ivanov reconstruct a word for 'monkey' in IE
but I've already mentioned my distrust for their reconstructions.
Personally, I'd say that it's more likely that the word entered
these languages independently after the fracture of the IE language
area, although I don't know precisely from which language or
languages offhand. Anybody else know a possible foreign source of
the term?


= gLeN